(Gus)
(Gus’) original collection in the Archive spans 8 years, 1972-1980, ages 5 years and 4 months to 13 years and 4 months. The full collection contains 870 items, which are reproduced on microfiche in the Reference Edition. Houses and dwellings are prominent in (Gus’) work, often elaborated with strong color applied in contiguous blocks or patterns ofstripes or grids, with variations in chimneys and other elements that indicate the form is a structure for variation. Ghosts, monsters, robots, and vehicles appear in his work, although with inattention or ambiguity as to setting or narrative. He experiments with ways of using visual media to represent invisible forces in physics and spirit. In pictures and stories, sports and popular culture are a motif. In stories, as well as in visual work, there can be a shift from the particular and present, to a more ambiguous space/time. An implied largeness is worked, as it were meditatively, through ordered repetition and variation of color or elements. Number, pattern, and color are important and serve as means of relationship, though relationship may also be conveyed by, for example, a tree leaning into another. The largeness and general absence of story or continuous action evoke a sense of archetypal forms or ideas and of incipience, beginning, or promise. Non-figurative work is particularly abundant at ages 8-9, 10-11, and 12-13. The quantity of visual work falls off in the last two years of the collection, but suggests involvement with large ideas of space, time, and spirit. His production of writing increases somewhat. In writing and in visual works, he explores themes of world citizenry and personal self-determination. His writing style remains lean, spare.